As far as exhibitions go, a week is a pretty short time frame. But it looks like there will be as more panel panels, presentations, screenings, artist performances, and workshops during that time than you can shake a stick at, so that’s a positive. We have some concerns about the theme, though, as there’s barely one to speak of. The exhibition text promises to “showcase artists working in and pushing the boundaries of digital art”—so basically it’s a group of artists whose work the curators like.

To be fair, though, the artist list probably isn’t that different than one we’d assemble ourselves. It includes some of the most talented artists working in the field, and has been assembled by GIPHY Arts, Wallplay, Rhizome and Transfer”.

So, even without a theme, we’re excited to look at the show. A few samples of what’s in store below.

This week you’re in for a weird ride. From Aaron Pexa’s installation inspired by faeries from Welsh mythology (opening Wednesday at UrbanGlass) to a show of fake John Waters memorabilia Thursday night at La MaMa, there’s a lot of idiosyncratic happenings to partake in. Add to that itinerary a Friday night group show of emotion-altering colors (like the opposite of a mood ring!) at Small Editions and Eva Papamargariti’s speculative mutant frogs at TRANSFER on Saturday.

The week is of course dominated by two news items: The Whitney Biennial and The Wintery Downfall.

After the blizzard, Wednesday is a great opportunity to get yourself in the snowy mood, art-wise. Enjoy doses of culture from freezing, windswept regions, including Marsden Hartley’s Maine at The Met Breuer (if you’re missing the Whitney’s old digs) and Berlin-based Danish/Norwegian duo Elmgreen & Dragset in conversation with Dan Cameron at The Flag Art Foundation. Later, catch the Icelandic thriller Hevn at Scandinavia House’s New Nordic Cinema screening series.

Other highlights include Fort Gansevoort’s female-perspective sports show March Madness Thursday night and TRANSFER’s four year birthday party, which will feature affordable editions from some of our favorite digital artists.

Oh yeah, and make time to check out the Biennial. I’m told it’s good, but “traumatic”. An appropriately bleak show to match our physical and political climate?

Today and tomorrow New Yorkers will be saddled by this terrible Northeaster storm, but that shouldn’t stop you from attending Hannah Cole’s talk on artist taxes today or Judith Bernstein’s talk and book launch dubbed dicks of death tomorrow. They’re too important to miss. By Wednesday art lovers will be able to head to the Lodge for an opening of John Wellington’s dystopian history paintings, and on Thursday to the New York City Ballet to see electronic artist Dan Deacon’s “America” set to ballet. We’re particularly looking forward to seeing the ballet given Deacon’s connection to the blog. He’s a Baltimore resident and a long time muse for the blog.

By the time the weekend sets in, it’ll be all talks moderated by Art F City’s Paddy Johnson. On Saturday she’ll be discussing how the Nevada Test Site has influenced the paintings of Eric LoPresti with Eric LoPresti. Sunday, she’ll be discussing the evolving roll of storytelling in American culture with Jack Early and friends.

All of which is to say there’s plenty to see and do this week. So let’s not delay. Put these dates in your calendar and plan to compare notes later on!

Back in March Transfer held a group screening for NarGIFsus, a show curated by Carla Gannis that invited more than 60 artists to present selfie-self portraits. We need a bit of levity, so we’re highlighting the work of one artist in that show—Patrick Lichty. For this project Lichty made a self portrait of his digital self. The figure is his Second Life avatar, Man Michinaga, surrounded by cats, Confused Travolta (his totem at the time), on a background of flying saucer invasions. When he sent us the animated GIF he offered the following explanation. “I live in Dubai, so my life IS science fiction.”

Modern-day slavery, female representation and outsider art are the big themes of this week’s Must-See Art Events. Today, two talks (Cheryl I. Harris at Artists Space and the Normalities Austrian Cultural Forum) look at the market-enforced instability of ‘black’ spaces and the ongoing Balkan immigration to Vienna, respectively. Two solo shows — Betty Tompkins at FLAG Art Foundation and Carla Gannis at TRANSFER — could be seen together as first- and third-wave feminist responses to female representation. And the Outsider Art Fair at the Metropolitan Pavilion — coinciding with a Christie’s sale of outsider art on January 22 — suggests the formerly niche art market sector is finally going mainstream.

2015 was great for art. For all the bitching that went on about art fairs, the dominance of the market, and sub-par museum shows (cough, cough Björk), I saw more great shows than I have in my ten years working as a critic in New York. Rather than try to whittle our picks down to a few select shows, we wrote up every show we thought was truly exemplary.

How do you infuse life into a zombie art fair? Ask Pulse Director Helen Toomer. She’s been in the unenviable position of having to clean up years of poor leadership at Pulse, and has miraculously achieved some success during her two-year tenure. The fair’s put together PERSPECTIVES, an impressive discussion series put together in partnership with Hyperallergic and has slowly but slowly pushing some of the long time, weaker exhibitors out of the fair. Meanwhile, Pulse has succeeded in bringing strong exhibitors into the fold like Monya Rowe, Yancey Richardson and Transfer. Great strides have been made.